ABSTRACT
In all cultures and at all times in history, children have been nurtured, cared for, and brought up to take their rightful place as adult members of society. Although the history of childhood is tainted by abuse, individually and collectively, against children, the general principle remains that we as a people take care of our offspring, One of the purposes of this chapter is to look at the concerns and anxieties that people in the 21st century feel about just one aspect that appears to threaten the well-being of the younger members of their culture-the real or imagined threat posed by the presence of commercial communications. What are the problems? Is it unfair to subvert the developing rationality of children with sophisticated marketing techniques? Should children be protected from the wilder excesses of the commercial and material world? If parents won’t do this, who will? Should the state step in? In this chapter, we see that some of these concerns are well founded and others are based on false assumptions about the role of advertising, marketing, and promotion in general. Here you can find the evidence and the arguments, but the decision is yours. These are your children and this is their future. I hope that this chapter makes you think but also helps you make up your mind. The debate is not just a cool evaluation of alternative arguments and a winnowing of contradictory findings; it’s inextricably tied up with politics, values, attitudes, and ultimately visions of what children are like and what they deserve.
